I arrived at the NIH during this year and much of my effort has been devoted to setting up my laboratory. We have established a colony of BRS-3 knockout mice. A conditional floxed knockout does not yet exist for BRS-3 and we are in the process of making such a mouse. We also plan to generate a transgenic mouse with Cre recombinase driven by BRS-3. An MTA that enables us to get BRS-3 compounds (MK-5046, MK-7255, and Bantag-1) from Merck has been created. The mouse physiology capabilities needed are also being established, including the ability to measure metabolic rate at thermoneutrality and a telemetry system for continuous body temperature monitoring. Additionally, work on BRS-3 that I was involved with at Merck Research Laboratories prior to my arrival at NIDDK continues to be guided through the publication process.